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The first Capitol riot defendant convicted at trial faces sentencing Monday, with prosecutors asking a judge for 15 years in prison, the longest sentence ever sought in a case related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress .
The request for Guy Refitt, a recruiter for the extremist Three Percent movement who led a mob at the Capitol, is about a third longer than the nine to 11 years recommended under advisory federal guidelines. Prosecutors say the tough sentence is warranted, following threats for the first time to seek enhanced terrorism sentences for defendants who reject plea deals.
Reffit was convicted on March 8 of five felonies, including obstructing Congress while it convened to certify the results of the 2020 election, interfering with police and carrying a firearm during a riot and threatening his teenage son, who turned him over to the FBI.
Defense lawyers for Refitt, a 49-year-old former oil industry executive, had asked for a two-year sentence under the guidelines. Attorney F. Clinton Broden said in a filing that his client was not violent and had no criminal record, but prosecutors were seeking far more time for him than for the defendants who pleaded guilty to assaulting police.
Citing terrorism, the US is seeking 15 years in prison in the January 6 case
“This is a mockery of the criminal justice system, the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, and the victims assaulted by [others] to argue that Mr. Reffitt should receive a greater sentence than (not to mention three times that of) a defendant who assaulted police officers on at least two separate occasions, spent three hours on the Capitol grounds and who has a past history of violence,” Broden wrote.
But Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Nestler and Risa Berkower said Reffitt’s case is exceptional.
Refit “played a central role” in leading a vigilante mob that challenged and overran police at a key choke point, a staircase leading up from the Lower West Terrace, before the initial smashing of windows near the doors of the Senate wing of the Capitol at 2:13 a.m. , the prosecutor’s office announced. After the riot, Refit warned his son and 16-year-old daughter that “if you betray me, you are a traitor, and traitors are shot,” his son testified at trial.
Conventional sentencing rules are “insufficiently broad” to account for the extent of Refitt’s obstruction, witness tampering and weapons offenses, prosecutors wrote in a 58-page sentencing memo.
“Reffitt attempted not only to shut down Congress, but to physically attack, remove and replace legislators who had served in Congress,” prosecutors wrote.
They called his behavior “a typical example of an intent to both influence and retaliate against government behavior through intimidation or coercion” and said it reflected the law’s definition of terrorist violence, which was subject to harsher punishment.
A jury found that Reffitt traveled to D.C. from his home in Wylie, Texas, with an AR-style rifle and a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun and repeatedly stated his intention to come armed with a gun and plastic handcuffs to get lawmakers out of building. After returning home from Washington, he threatened his children to make sure they wouldn’t turn him in to the authorities.
The request by the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, which is overseeing the prosecution of about 840 Capitol siege defendants who have been charged federally so far, is not binding on U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, who did not fulfill the recommendations of the prosecutors in 22 of January 24, 6 sentences to date.
The longest sentence in a Jan. 6 case so far is 63 months, given to a Florida man who pleaded guilty to attacking police with a fire extinguisher and wooden plank, and a D.C. man who assaulted three officers and broke a riot shield with a rod.
By comparison, Friedrich has sentenced only three defendants who have pleaded guilty to crimes so far, the longest at 27 months in prison, also for assaulting police.
Still, prosecutors may be hoping to send a clear signal to the roughly 330 defendants still awaiting trial on felony charges and who may still be considering whether to accept a plea deal or play to a jury. About 70 people pleaded guilty and nine, including Refit, were convicted at trial.
Anger meets disgust – first trial since Jan. 6 shows family, nation torn apart by Trump
Refit left home at 15, moved in with his older sister and began working as a dishwasher at KFC after enduring years of physical abuse from his father, Broden wrote. After becoming a father himself, Broden said, Refitt was devoted to his children and to creating safe spaces for others. His lawyer said Reffit was a self-made man who took his family abroad while working in places including Malaysia, overseeing operations worth tens of millions of dollars, but was financially and emotionally devastated after a downturn in the oil and gas industry. He lost his job in November 2019, just months before the pandemic swept the United States.
Reffitt’s daughters noticed that his “mental health was deteriorating” during this period, Broden wrote. Refit fell “down the rabbit hole of political news and online banter,” one of his daughters wrote, and he fell under the rule of Donald Trump, “constantly fueling polarizing racial thought.”
“I could really see my father[’]His ego and personality fell to his knees when President Trump spoke, you could tell he was listening to Trump’s words like he was really speaking to him,” said one of Refitt’s daughters.
Letters from nine friends and relatives provided to the court by Refitt’s defense “describe a depressed man who believed he was unable to adequately provide for his family (his life’s mission) and a man who felt rejected and marginalized.” , Broden writes.
Refit started a security business and joined Three Centers in Texas. The right-wing anti-government group is named after the myth that only 3 percent of colonists fought in the American Revolution against the British.
In a letter to the judge, Reffit outlined a series of family traumas since 2020, including medical and mental health emergencies, and pleaded for leniency on behalf of his family.
“My regrets for what happened are overwhelming. Not a day goes by that I don’t regret how much this has affected [my wife and children],” Refit wrote. “Yes, what is happening to my family is all my fault, I would like to fix it please. … I’m just asking for a chance to prove myself again.”
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